Newspaper Page Text
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Atlanta Widows—lo 4of Them—Fight Bravely, but Lack a Helping Hand
The Associated Chari
ties Has Launched a
Campaign to Give
Pensions to Worthy
Women Who Are
Rearing Children.
By TARLETON COLLIER
MRS. WIMBERLY sat on her front porch
and looked out over a dreary landscape
of railroad tracks, soot flocked, shabby
freight cam, drab cinder paths and a farther
fringe of factory buildings.
Her shoulders drooped, as would any worn
all’s who Is driven to unprofitable work in sup
port of six small children, keeping house for
thorn at the same time, and working night and
<lay with It all. But this time there was a
weary, forlorn cast to the drooping shoulders
that spoke of more than mere physi<*al ex
haustion. There were worlds of despair and
hopelessness in the woman's attitude.
The wind that drove the soot flakes was a
bit cold, and bore the menace that winter holds
for the poor. Maybe it was the prescience of
hardships soon to come that had added hope
lessness to the bodily weariness that was to be
read from the forlorn droop of Mrs. Wimberly’s
shoulders.
For a long time she sat there. Then the
front door opened, and a little girl, dirt-smeared
of face and dress and hare feet, came out, and
ran to the woman's side. At the patter of her
feet, the woman turned swiftly, caught the
child to her breast, hugged her fiercely, and at
the same time began to cry.
Mrs. Wimberly had come only that day to a
realization that she must part with her chil
dren. The daily struggle had become too great.
She snw now that It had tM'en Impossible, even
from the first. The work that a woman of or
dinary intelligence, little or no education, can do
is certainly not profitable. And there la rent to
pay and food to buy aud clothes, and the chill
wind bore warning of another expense.
And so Mrs. Wimberly sat on her front porch,
her shoulders drooping pathetically, and cried.
Mrs. Wimberly is a real person. She lives
in Atlanta not far from the stockyards. She is
one of an appallingly large number of widows
who, with big families to support, are torn be
tween the prospect of a life of hardship with
their children, and n little easier time that
will be theirs if they give up the boys and
girls.
It is for just such persons as Mrs. Wimberly
that the Associated Charities is asking the
City Council to make appropriation for widows'
pensions—a littje money each month, probably
enough to pay the rent in some cases, probably
I sl2. or even $25 In other cases, but a certain
- amount each month.
“We want to lift those poor widows out of
a condition where they are dependent on the
vicissitudes of private charity, and make per
manent provision for them.” explained Joseph
C. Ixigan. secretary of the Associated Chart
ties, yesterday.
The actual need exists in 104 homes, tn each
of which there is a widowed mother of several
small children, who must work for her living
and must keep the home, often without help,
because the children are tiny and helpless.
In each of the 104 homes there is a woman
who has evolved a spirit of defiance against
the world, and who is conducting an actual
tight for her children.
The Sunday American reporter realized this.
He went to one little house, to which he had
been directed by the Associated Charities as
that of one of the needy widows. A tall, gaunt
woman answered his knock, and he asked her
to "let him take the pictures of herself and
her family.
The woman misunderstood htm. and drew
back, defiantly.
’’What! Take one of my children?" she
cried, fiercely. “No. I'd rather go to jail than
part with one of my kids."
She threw her arms around a boy anil a
girl, one on each side, and stepped backward
toward the house door.
She is a woman who has six children, and
who for nearly seven years has been working
to keep them. Her oldest child Is eighteen,
a girl who is a hojieless invalid with tubercu
losis of the bone. The next is a boy. fifteen,
then a girl, thirteen, who re<-ently haxe gone
to work to supplement the mother’s income.
But she would part with none of the chil
dren.
"Not for a million dollars," she said, backing
away from the reporter. Then, her mistake
explained, she became immediately humble,
with the humility of the very poor. All her
spirit and her energy is conserved for the one
thing, the fight for her children.
Explaining the purpose of the Associated
Charities in its campaign for widows' pensions,
(secretary Ixigan told of the bitter work that
falls on these widowed mothers.
“There is a small class of heroic women
in the community who are struggling to raise
children against obstacles which they can not
overcome without help.” he said. ‘‘l refer
to widows who are left without means, and
with two or more young children. These wom
en hare been of mea
* 1
Cheerful despite diversity. A typical needy family in which the widow and her children are bravely fighting life’s battle. It is for such as these that the widows’
pension is sought.
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whose wages left no margin for saving; their
glory Is their motherhood, and their single am
bition in life is to keep their children by their
side.
“The community is vitally concerned in their
struggle. Such women will never voluntarily
part with their children, and they cling to them
through adversity which gradually breaks their
bodies and souls; the children also are stunted
in mind and body by enforced neglect and
deprivation. The community cares for them
later in its jails and hospitals.
"The end of most of such struggles is a court
proceeding to compel the mother to give up
the children to some institution where they are
assured of food and clothing. But this pro
vision comes too late. The girls and boys who
gave promise of making useful citizens have
been handicapped for life.
“This is a situation which ought not to be
tolerated and which can be corrected by aid
ing these women sufficiently to bring up their
children properly in their own homes.
“Such aid must come from the various di
visions of the government.
"I’rivate charity, with the manifold calls
upon it. traceable to sickness, desertion, old
age. etc., does not meet the situation. I‘rivate
charity, however, has helped a sufficient num
ber of widows in this way to demonstrate that
it is the best way for all parties concerned, the
mother, the children and the community.
"The directors of the Associated Charities
have determined to urge the council of 1914
to appropriate not less than $3,000. to be placed
in the hands of the City Warden for the bene-
of tboee y'ldows with children,
HEARST’S SUNDAY AMERICAN, ATI.ANTA, GA, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5, TTO?.
whom the City Warden determines to be en
titled to same under provisions to be adopted
by Council.
“Council will have before ft in this matter
the precedent of eighteen States which have
made this provision for widows."
In a small way, as best it could with the in
sufficient provision for maintenance that it has.
the Associated Charities has worked out the
pension ssystem effectively. In 1911 the or
ganization helped five of the 104 widows in
this way through funds subscribed by people
already Interested in the particular families,
or enlisted by the association in their behalf.
This method costs tnore than the association
has been able to secure, except in a few in
stances. One of the five widows regularly pen
sioned last year received $320.40, and another
$176.
Os these two, the first had five children, and
the other four. They both did all in their
power to supplement the funds received from
the association by their own efforts. One sold
the milk and butter from two cows: the other
made an average of sl2 a month sewing, and
also received the earnings of one child who
worked. After five years this child is making
$35 a month, and a sister, who has been helped
to take a business course, is starting out at $25
a mouth. This family is self-supporting, the
other soon will be. In the meantime, all the
children of school age in both families have
regularly attended school.
From the results of these experiments, and
of a few others, the organization has come to
the conclusion that the widows’ pension sys
lem, well s»UblisUfd, would be as well
as of good to the community.
“It is a public need,” explained Secretary
Logan. "The city must see that Its fatherless
children are reared under the best advantages.
And where can careful, tender rearing come
from better than from the mothers.
"The bringing up of fatherless children is a
charge on the community. Too big and com
plex a charge to be met by more money or the
sympathy of employed visitors. Not because
the sympathy of the visitor Is less vivid, but
as Drummond said, “No mother can love a mil
lion," and no human visitor, no outsider, no
institution, can so well understand and love
children as can their mother.
"The appeal of these widows and their chil
dren is not only to the pocketbook of civiliza
tion, but to the heart, the service, the mind,
the patience. These women and children have
not been cared for as they could with a steady,
assured pension. Heretofore only a few could
be provided, and this few were provided by
money from private sources, which is altogether
uncertain. tVe want to get the matter of their
support off the basis of vicissitude.”
Out of his records. Mr. Logan indicated
scores of cases, where the need is imminent,
cases like those of Mrs. Wimberly.
“Here is one.” he pointed out. “A widow of
a city policeman She has three small children,
the youngest a baby, the oldest a feeble-minded
girl, and the second an infant two and a half
years old She has no income other than what
she can receive from the work of her needle,
and although she is a good seamstress, she can
not earn enough in the time left from the care
fequired the chiidrtm to tuulntulu henjejjf
and them. Probably S2O will be necessary for
her each month.
“There is another woman who lost her hn»-
band less than a year ago who is making a
brave fight that has in it the intensity of an
animal's defense of her young, besides the per
sistence and intelligence of the human will.
She has two children, four and three years old,
who are looked after during the day, while
their mother works, by an aunt. The aunt has
rheumatism, and earns nothing. The widow's
wages are $3.50 a week.
“She should go to the hospital for an oper
ation, but is not willing to place her children
in an institution for even the time that she
would be confined in the hospital. If she knew
that the aunt and children were provided for,
she would consent to go to the hospital.”
The records of case after case he pulled from
his filing cabinets.
“These people are not permanent public
charges,” he explained. “There will always be
a large number, but the individuals get on their
feet by the help of others, and become again
self-supporting and independent. Here is Mrs.
Jackson, who is now self-supporting, herself
earning $7 a week, and her oldest girl, now 17
years old, earning $5 a week. There are three
other children, two of whom are regularly in
school, the youngest being in a sanitarium.
When this family first came to the attention
of the Associated Charities in 1907, the oldest
child was only 12 years old. and the only in
come of the family was derived from the moth
er’s earning, then but $4 a week. The family
has been held together by the generosity of a
who ga e# housq aod hj a x<ulas
The Plan for Relief Is
Put Squarely Up to
the City as a Duty to
Those Who Are
Growing Into Citi
zens of the Future.
per cent, practically a pension, from the asso
ciation, which supplemented her earnings.
“This home is now independent, and this
woman has a right to be proud of the winning
fight she made for her children.”
Still another case outlined was that of a
widow whose husband had been in the city's
employ. She has four children, the oldest 12
years old. and the only support which the fam
ily has comes from the occasional help of rela
tives and from what the woman can earn tak
ing in washing.
A tentative appeal already has been made to
Council by officials of the association, but, be
cause of the decision of City Attorney Mayson,
unofficially delivered, that under the present
charter no such pensions could be granted, the
matter has been laid aside. The Associated
Charities is ready to continue the fight for pen
sions, probably even to taking the matter to the
State Legislature if it be found that the city
charter does impose too great a limitation on
the pensioning power of Council.
“The city gives the poor some money at pres
ent,” said Mr. Logan. “It is a little, about $5
a month, but it seems that giving this it can
give more. The matter of pensioning these
widows and of allowing them the right to rear
and care for their own children appears to me
a matter of public need and public service that
would make this mattetr of real significance,
and beyond a mere charity appeal. It merely
takes away from a basis of uncertainty the
present provision for the support of poor wi
dows. and places it on a basis of permanence.”
A pamphlet issued by the Associated Chari
ties. outlining an appeal for help toward se
curing the widows' pensions, explains the sev
eral means by which a poor widow with chil
dren may subsist, showing that the best, after
all, is that means by which she can keep her
children around her and under her care. It
says :
“Communities can now undertake to aid
widows with children in three ways:
“First, by placing all the children in orphan
ages and letting the mother take care of her
self by working.
"A second way to aid them is to put the
children in a day nursery, and let the mother
work during the day and take them home at
night.
“There are mothers in this city who are daily
rising a 5 o'clock in the morning, dressing and
cooking breakfast for three or four children,
taking them off to a nursery, and then report
ing for ten hours' work at less than six dollars
a week. On leaving work they take their chil
dren home, cook their supper, and afterwards
wash their clothes.
“It is all vain suffering and useless struggle.
The mother breaks down, and the children turn
wayward as they grow older.
“A third way of helping widows with chil
dren is to give them regularly an amount suf
ficient to enable the mother to keep her home
together. She is worth more to the community
as the caretaker of her children than in any
other capacity.
“This Is not only the best way to care for
those widows who, with such aid. can and will
make a proper home for their children, but It
is the cheapest way.”
The pl,an of a widows’ pension was evolved
at a meeting of the board of trustees of the
association some time ago, and because of the
hope It held out that here was the moat effect
ive means of providing for the helpless poor,
it was indorsed enthusiastically and work to
ward Its establishment aa an institution under
the city’s laws began immediately.
Sangra’s Song to Her Son
By FREDERICK DAVIDSON
Hush, my little manlken, sleep de hours away.
Mammy got to wuck ag’in at de crack o’ day.
Daddy got to plough de groun mammy drap
de corn,
And Sisy skeer de crows tell we hear de dinner
horn.
Sleep, my little maniken, mammy got to patch
An’ have your cio'es all clean gin Sunday lif
de latch,
Den well have a res’ day, go down to de river.
Smell de flowers, ketch de fish, wish *twou'd
las’ forever.
De little foxes all abed, de rabbit's lyin low.
In dey nes’ 'gin mammy’s breas’ is red bird, dove
an’ crow.
Chickens asleep, varmints too. de frog an' de
snake,
De stars up yander winkin dey eyes; you is
awake.
Close dem eyes lak chinquapins, shet dat mouf
so sweet.
Cling close to mammy’s heart wid little han's
an’ feet.
De day is cornin' fas’ when a man you'll g”
away.
Den I grieve for maniken from night to break
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